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They Sell No Fake Before Its Time

The street vendor looked both ways before he whispered, "I have the real ones in my car, down the street." He left and brought back what he initially claimed were the latest Louis Vuitton handbags, hidden in a black plastic trash bag. "I should get $200, but for you, I'll make it $180," he said. The vendor, at the corner of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, near the Plaza Hotel, was insulted when the deal, for a cheap imitation of the real thing, was turned down.

"But these are the real copies!" he argued.

New York City's street vendors sell many things, from souvenir photographs of Manhattan's skyline and beaded slippers made in India, to cellphones and fake silk ties, to African wooden masks and the crème de la crème: imitation designer handbags and sunglasses.

Most of the designer accessories, and nearly all of the watches, are barely disguised knock-offs of famous brands. The more fake-looking, law enforcement officials say, the more legal.

Occasionally, the vendors offer something out of the ordinary like hand-made leather-bound journals from Italy, selling for $20 to $30 on a table outside Balthazar, the SoHo restaurant on Spring Street near the corner of Broadway. A block away, Doron Tvizer sells, for $10, necklaces and earrings he makes of shell and brass.

Street vending in New York is as old as pushcarts. But now, buying from Manhattan's vendors has grown increasingly chic, especially among young people. Although there are no official numbers of shoppers or total sales -- vendors are not required to report such figures -- city officials and regulators agree: the number of street vendors has grown exponentially, the sellers have diversified their wares and business is booming.

Traditional retailers, especially the department stores, are not thrilled by this development but live with the vendors, who tend to set up tables just outside store doors.

"Street vending is big business," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst for the NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y., "and vendors can be better than department stores at spotting the trends." Not only that, the vendors are sometimes more flexible, he said. "If the stores are sold out of, say, pink handbags, they're out of luck for the season. But the vendors can get stuff air-shipped from China in a week."

In 1979, the city capped at 853 the number of licenses for nonfood vendors -- for an annual fee of $200. Another 1,704 vendor licenses are held by military veterans,who are not required to pay fees. And there are the First Amendment vendors who sell artwork, books, records, CD's and even baseball cards. They also pay no fee and need no license.

The business must be lucrative. There are now 3,133 nonveterans waiting for a license to become available, according to Jonathan Mintz, the acting commissioner in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Many more vendors operate illegally, officials say.

Success is contagious. While the police try to clamp down on unlicensed vendors, the outdoor sellers are getting bolder -- and the customers just keep coming. "We definitely came here for the street vendors," said Jessica Wilson, 22, a store clerk from Chicago, in New York on vacation. "This time we came for sunglasses. Not all are great, but some are good, and I always bargain." Ms. Wilson was paying $25 for fake Chanels.

Many shoppers know the score: Most of the goods are copies of whatever is hot in handbags, eyewear and jewelry. But that's the point -- buyers relish the idea that for $25 they can get a passable copy of a handbag that would cost $250 if they bought the real thing. Or a lot more. "C'mon," the street vendor with the black trash bag said, "this is a copy of an $8,000 bag."

Standing at the corner of 46th Street and Broadway, Jessica Davenport, 19, a tourist from Toronto, had just bought a Pashmina scarf for $5. "Well, it's supposed to be Pashmina," she said with a laugh. Her friend, Jordan Deketer, also 19, was wearing some rings he had bought several days before. "They turned my fingers green at first," he said, "but now they're fine."

The vendors' youthful customers are not all tourists. Kaila Clark, 14, from Harlem, was shopping with her mother in the theater district. "The most popular thing out there are Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags, DVD's and knock-off baseball caps," Kaila said.

Although there are street vendors in other places -- Chicago, San Francisco, Washington and Toronto all have a significant number -- New York is known for the variety of its merchandise. There are no statistics on how much is sold by street vendors. "Try asking waiters how much tax they pay on your tips," said Philip Reed, chairman of the City Council's consumer affairs committee.

Mr. Reed estimates that hundreds of millions of dollars of goods are sold each year. Mr. Cohen, with the NPD Group, agrees. "There's at least $100 million of business done right on the street," he said yesterday.

The city's comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., estimated in a report he issued last year that the city loses $1 billion in tax revenue because of trafficking in counterfeits, but the numbers in the study were later criticized by a local columnist as inflated. Regardless of the amount, most city officials agree that the vending community does not pay its fair share of sales taxes.

Mr. Reed is trying to bring order to a system he calls "chaotic" by proposing a vendor overhaul bill that would limit the number of vendors to six on a block but would also expand the number of streets on which vendors can show their wares. "I'm not against the vendors," he told one right outside his office near City Hall. But he complains that the situation -- including too many illegal vendors and too many arcane regulations that no one understands -- must be revamped.

While he holds hearing after hearing -- five so far -- he says the number of vendors, especially the illegal ones, is growing. "The police throw up their hands," Mr. Reed said. "There is virtually no enforcement."

The street vendors congregate in a handful of the most popular neighborhoods for tourists: 125th Street in Harlem; the corners surrounding Bloomingdale's at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue; around Bergdorf Goodman at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue; in the Theater District in the West 40's; SoHo up and down Broadway near Spring Street, and along Canal Street between Broadway and West Broadway.

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The goods come from a variety of distributors. Almost all of the handbags, hats, photo frames and sunglasses are made in China. On Friday and Saturday mornings, it is not unusual to see vendors lining up near a truck in the theater district to receive shipments of goods. Many vendors say they get their merchandise in Long Island City, Queens or from outlets in Brooklyn.

Like traditional retailers, street vendors buy at wholesale prices and mark them up. The vendor outside Bergdorf's wanted $35 for an obvious knock-off of Vuitton's newest plastic-coated canvas bag, the one with the cherries on it. Without much bargaining, he came down to $25, but would not budge from that. "I paid $17," he said.

The bag with the cherries, an imitation of the limited-edition Vuitton bag by the artist Takashi Murakami, may or may not be legal to sell, according to city officials. In general, the legality of a knock-off depends on how similar it is to the authentic item. Even a bag without the trademark "LV" or a watch with "Kolex" instead of "Rolex" is not necessarily legal. While each case is different, company lawyers say, a series of court decisions has produced guidelines for which imitations might be considered counterfeit, and therefore illegal, and which are considered legal interpretations.

In one sale, a street vendor told a customer that if she paid $5 more, he would include "the label," a small black fabric strip with "Kate Spade" on it. He brandished the label, and a glue gun. (On May 24, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that would make illegal the mere possession of these labels -- even without the handbags to go with them. Manufacturers of luxury goods hailed the legislation, which must still pass the Senate.)

"Chanel" sunglasses are another popular item. They are wraparound, with the interlocking "C" on each side of the lens, and usually sell for $10, two for $15. (The real ones sell for $285 and up.)

Some customers revel in the idea that some of the stuff is stolen, that it "fell off the back of the truck." That almost never happens. Virtually none of the items sold are authentic, but many tourists, young and old, don't seem to care.

Some of the out-of-towners do not even know which designer is being knocked off.

Did the fact that selling these fakes might not be legal matter to the customers?

Kaila's mother, Jacqueline Thompson, said she was somewhat bothered that the artists and musicians who made the CD's and DVD's were not getting their fair percentage, and the young tourists from Toronto said if they knew the vendors were selling illegally they would not be buying.

But Ms. Wilson, the shopper from Chicago, said she didn't particularly care. "Whatever," she said keeping her eye on the vendor, who was making change. "I'm not the one who's going to get into trouble."

About 10 blocks north in SoHo, Andra Millian, a doctor from Austin, Tex., who specializes in Chinese medicine, was buying a faux-suede belt for $10. "We can't get this stuff in Texas. This belt would look really cool and very cute over a little skirt." Dr. Millian, too, was undaunted by the questionable legality of the goods.

"Everyone has their little business," she said. "This isn't hurting anyone, and anyway, I don't live here."

Retail executives -- those who run their businesses from the limestone and concrete edifices designed to lure customers into paying the maximum amount for heavily taxed goods -- not surprisingly disagree.

To James J. Gold, Bergdorf's chief executive, the vendors are "an eyesore." "They crowd the sidewalk, they impact the flow of traffic," he added. Robert Burke, a vice president there, said the biggest problem was not that the vendors were stealing customers. "It's hardly going to impact our Manolo business," he said loftily. No, "the biggest problem is navigating around them."

For many shoppers, Mr. Burke continued, it is a question of integrity, not just money. "Luxury is offered at all levels, and many different price points: from a piece of chocolate to a handbag, they must have the very best that's made. That satisfaction can't be replaced by frauds."

The traditional retailers may complain, but some say that, in the end, vendors do not affect their business. "It might be affecting the discounters or the novelty stores," Mr. Cohen said. "If you shop on the street, you know it's not real, you know it's going to fall apart, that it's disposable. You're buying for the fun of it."

The vendors also have a tense relationship with the police. Across from City Hall, James B. Williams had just gotten a ticket from a policeman. "He said my table was too long," he complained.

Mr. Williams sells cellphones and cellphone accessories with other vendors on the street. "We all try to work together," he said. "We're all out here making a living." How's business? "I do pretty good, not great, but enough to survive. I'm the sole support of my youngest children."

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A version of this article appears in print on May 26, 2005, on Page C00001 of the National edition with the headline: They Sell No Fake Before Its Time; On the Streets, Genuine Copies (And a Few Originals). Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe